Narvekar has no fear of flying - March 10,2008

Eye Spy appears in Gomantak Times every Monday


Around The World In 365 days
From the time man inherited the earth, the dream of flying has always been paramount. Legend tells of Pegasus, the flying horse, Hermes, the winged messenger of the Gods, of the Greek inventor, Daedalus who made wings for himself and his son Icarus, of the Arabians and their flying carpets. Among the dreamers were Leonardo DaVinci who seriously studied birds and drew pictures of wings, parachutes, propellers and helicopters; Edgar Allen Poe and Jules Verne who wrote many stories of flying above the earth and space, including 'Around The World In 80 Days.'
Man has even flapped his arms and jumped off cliffs repeatedly and unsuccessfully. Only in 1783 man could float freely through the air for the first time in baskets attached to big balloons filled with hot air. The romantic era of aviation, the era of helmeted and be-goggled young men who flew for the love of flying, is over, unfortunately. Today, it's different. Today in Goa, a group of MLAs like Vishwajeet Rane and his modern day apparatchiks get into a flap over such dreary notions as the government not functioning, and before you can say "Hell, no" they take off with the speed and versatility of a (VTOL) vertical takeoff and landing aircraft like the Navy's Sea Harrier. None is prepared to jump off for example the Porvorim cliff, and I do not mean that literally, but figuratively, meaning they wouldn't in exchange for a flight on board the Apollo even be willing to eject from their pilot seats in the Secretariat. No, they have to fly off to Dilli. In a way they are fearless, primed to be airborne more, and therefore, they are called Goa's Flying Circus. The leader of our very own team of Red Devils is Dayanand Narvekar whose unquenchable thirst for flying cost the taxpayer Rs14,94,884 between February 2, 2000 and October 11, 2007. Fasten your seat belts and be ready for takeoff.

Free flying
Beginning the year 2000 (I have records from 2000-March 1, 2007 only) Narvekar flew once to Mumbai. In 2003 he flew Goa-Delhi, Goa-Bangalore and Goa-Delhi. In 2004 he flew Goa-Kolkata-Alzwal-Guwahati-Delhi. In 2005 Goa-Pune, Goa-Delhi, Goa-Pune-Mumbai, Goa-Bangalore, Goa-Delhi-Mumbai, Goa-Delhi and Goa-Hyderabad. Between February 25 and September 25, 2006 he flew to Sydney, Australia (cost Rs2,20,818) Goa-Delhi, Goa-Delhi, Goa-Delhi, Goa-Delhi, Goa-Chennai-Bangalore, Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Bangalore-Mumbai, Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Delhi, Goa-Mumbai, Goa-Mumbai. And in our wisdom we thought they flew to Delhi only. We were wrong. Between October 13 and November 6, 2006 he flew to Delhi and Mumbai. Analyze his flight patterns if you can. Unfortunately I did not want to bore you with the periods of his stay outside Goa, though that might have provided the methodology. But, I do hope someone somewhere is getting the frequent flyer mileage benefit out of this flying. Because my own calculations tell me this could be huge, the frequent flyer benefit, that is.

Above ground!
In 2007 Narvekar was airborne most of the time flying six times to Delhi including via Mumbai once, ten times directly to Mumbai and once each to Mumbai- Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Chennai and Bangalore. Once to London-Sao Paulo-Rio (cost Rs5,14,054.) That's 20 flights in 12 months! Add the days spent in these destinations plus the usual flight delays and travelling time to airports that (delays + traveling time) in India normally amounts to more than double the flying hours, Narvekar must have been hardpressed for time. Only the chief secretary JP Singh at Rs17,43,663 (for the same period) bested politicians and IAS officers.

Obfuscator par excellence
Perhaps only Narvekar knows why he spends your money travelling to Mumbai because only he seems to know what is best for Goa. At the Biotech '08 seminar on March 1 in Mapusa he said this "Lots of people, who know nothing, decide lots of things for Goa." He, it can be said, practices a UK version of politics called "Economical with the truth" - if someone, especially a politician, is economical with the truth, they leave out information in order to create a false picture of a situation, without actually lying. Narvekar and every other minister hauled over the coals over SEZs, by the proletariat, has off course been saying this ad nauseam in so many words. And strangely Srinivas Dempo appeared to concur with Narvekar on this at the same venue according to the media report I read. Narvekar even had the bravado to make fun of an MLA who in the Assembly he said exposed his deep ignorance of what an industrial park was. According to Narvekar an industrial park is 60 percent open space and greenery. Is he perhaps himself confused over the difference between an industrial park and a green park or recreational park as you understand the meaning of it? I imagine the thugs who set fire to the shrub and forest in Socorro so that an IT park could be built there also have a different opinion.

Shooting yourself in the foot
Why is it the Congress that claims to know what is good for the aam aadmi just can't seem to win an election. Look at Gujarat, HP, MP and Punjab where elections were last held. Lost Karnataka, an old bastion, and could never rise there again as it never will in Orissa or UP and Bihar. It lost Maharashtra, perhaps forever, and is quite a joke in Tamil Nadu. In fact, apart from Andhra Pradesh it is on the wane, and can only rule as a coalition partner. And in a coalition the ground rules are that you listen and not get grouchy. It got into a huge tangle across India on the SEZ issue and now hopes to preempt the anti-incumbency factor by holding a general election anytime now. And now Tripura and Meghalaya.
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